Kid Connection Military Plane, black paint, black panel lining pen, Skystriker stickers, Conquest stickers

"Following the deployment of the Skystriker XP-14F, a variant mass production type Skystriker was developed for GI Joe greenshirt use. Nicknamed 'Snake-eater' for its shark mouth themed nose art, the greenshirt Skystriker enables GI Joe's greenshirts to provide the GI Joe team with air superiority support!"

I've always liked jets, in particular the F-14 Tomcat, and am always on the look out for GI Joe-scale jets. I came across this F-14-esque jet whilst browsing Wal-mart's Kid Connection military playsets. It is a very nice, simple toy.

My first thought was to attempt a full Skystriker conversion, but I wasn't sure how painting over the olive green would go, and it didn't make much sense to me to simply create a smaller version of the Skystriker.

The backstory about mass-producing a variant Skystriker for greenshirt use then occurred to me as a reason for keeping the jet green. Ironically, whilst in real life the F-14 is not painted green, another swing-wing jet, the Panavia Tornado, is deployed in green and green camo. During its deployment in the Middle East, the Tornado was given the nickname 'Mig eater'. So the Greenshirt Skystriker draws quite a lot of inspiration from the Tornado rather than the F-14.

I panel-lined the Kid Connection jet in black, painted the tailfins and nose in black to match the Skystriker, and applied Skystriker stickers. I then bought some Conquest stickers and applied the shark mouth stickers to the nose. I gave a Godzilla F/A 18 Hornet similar treatment to serve as a wingman, also pictured here.